HEALTH campaigners and local town councillors are attempting to ensure that part of the Westbury Community Hospital site remains for medical purposes, despite a draft proposal for 72 homes to be built at the site.

The proposal, put forward in February by NHS Property Services, was met with disappointment by many local people that the site would not be used in some form of medical capacity.

A task and finish group has now been set up by Westbury Town Council to investigate the need for a mixed use site, while a petition by campaign group Sensible Thinking On Patients (STOP) has received 2,000 signatures.

South West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison also met with representatives of the NHS Property Agency last week, to discuss the future of the site and need for health care in the town.

MP Murrison, who served as Surgeon Commander in the Royal Navy, said: “I think it was a positive meeting where I challenged their perception that health care needs in Westbury were being met which I feel is very contentious and which needs much more explanation.

“I hope that the meeting will help but what Westbury requires is a proper identification of healthcare needs and that any purchase of the site provides an element of health care.

“I’m disappointed that any pre-planning doesn’t consider this and think that it’s a pity but I will certainly be pressing Wiltshire Council on this.”

The 2.3 hectare site off Hospital Road was closed in April 2012 after being considered surplus to requirements by NHS England, and has remained vacant since.

The recommendation of a task and finish group was put forward by Councillor Gordon King, who along with Cllrs David Jenkins, Michael Sutton and Ian Cunningham are hoping to have some form of medical facility at the site.

Cllr King said: “When the draft proposal was shown to us at the start of the year there was a lot of upset residents and concern in our community and as it is my ward most people came to me with their concerns.

“Since then I’ve met Wiltshire Council, NHS Property Services and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group and for anything else to happen with that site Westbury Town Council has to prove there is a need in the town for it.

“Basically from speaking with Wiltshire Council they’ve said if you can prove the need and we can find a developer and a care agency to run it then we will make necessary interventions.

“If there’s a chink of light at the end of the tunnel then I will be there trying to get to the end and I’d rather try and find that it won’t work than saying it can’t be done.”

Erica Watson, leader of STOP and who has been working with Cllr King, said: “We want to see 30% of the development that would normally be reserved for affordable housing turned into a single health facility which could provide a variety of services.

“This could include accommodation for the elderly, a treatment room, a therapy room or other health and social care spaces which could be used by care agencies and or supported by other medical services.

“Unless we can show very clearly that there is a need for a health related facility in the town Wiltshire Council’s planning department might approve plans for the sale of the site for residential housing alone.”